Sunday, May 3, 2009

Crusader Greek Hoplites

Next off the painting bench is a unit I've been working on for about a month, sneaking in bits and pieces while waiting for commission work to dry. These 28 figures are all from the Crusader Rank and File line. The hoplites are RFA-021 "Greek Hoplites," and the musician and leader are from RFA-022 "Greek Hoplite Command." The shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios, with handpainted rims. I used Litko bases with Wargames Accessories metal bases for the bottom, which lets me attach the whole unit to a magnetic movement stand.

WAB Hoplite Phalanx

I toyed with the idea of basing these figures for FoG, with four figures on a 60mm frontage. I liked the way the hoplite shields overlapped on the base, but the FoG army list for classical Greeks just didn't thrill me. I'm already painting a Macedonian army for WAB, and I'm planning on painting Persian opponents for the same system, so I decided to base these Greeks for WAB as well.

Hoplite

I knew I wanted a varied look for my hoplites. The shield transfers were very important for this, and fortunately LBMS makes 48 distinct designs. I used six different shades of linothorax armor and six different shades of tunic.

Hoplite

I painted a different design on each of the 27 sets of linothorax armor, using red, blue, black, and green to paint the designs.

Officer

I know that hoplite generals would have used a spear just like the rest of the men, but this figure armed with sword will help mark the leader figure for WAB.

Shield Detail

It took me as long to paint the shield rims as it would have taken me to paint simple shield designs. I varied the colors and designs here as well.

I'm happy enough with the Crusader figures to build several more of these phalanxes. I'll probably mix some unarmored figures in the rear ranks of any more units.

6 comments:

Wow! Gorgeous colors. I'm glad these are not commission work. I know if I painted minis this nice I would have a hard time giving them away! You gotta admire the Greeks for their love of bright colors!